UNDERGROW - DESCRIPTIONS
========================

Undergrow is in development; release date TBA. Use any of these texts as
they are, or cut them down.


ONE LINE
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Grow the Council's quota under pink grow lamps, until a door sealed for two
hundred years knocks back.


SHORT DESCRIPTION (STORY)
-------------------------
Your silo has planted the same seed potatoes for two hundred years, and
every harvest gives less. The Council rations the decline and keeps the
doors shut. Then someone knocks on the sealed door at the end of the west
tunnel, and Greywell's oldest secret starts coming out.


SHORT DESCRIPTION (SYSTEMS)
---------------------------
A farming and politics sim with turn-based combat, set in a sealed
underground silo. Breed new seed lines before the old clones fail, meet the
Council's rising monthly quota, bargain with three factions and beat six
bosses, each with its own tool. Four endings decide who gets the seed.


LONG DESCRIPTION
----------------
A knock on the sealed door

You farm Level 61 of Greywell, an underground silo. The grow beds run under
pink lamps, and the seed potatoes in them are clones of clones: each
generation carries more disease and gives less. At the end of the west
tunnel stands a blast door stencilled KNELL. The founders sealed it two
hundred years ago, and the Council's authority rests on keeping it shut.

One day you knock on it, and someone knocks back.

The ledger and the quota

Steward Vance posts the Council's monthly figure of potatoes, and it goes up
every month. Miss two months in a row and the Council finds another farmer
for Level 61. Up on Level 44, the great ledger records the yield of every
bed, decade by decade, falling. Someone has written in its margin: "Ration
the decline. Do not publish. The doors stay shut."

The Pumpwrights run the water and the power, and they have been quietly
reopening the old tunnels. Knell, the silo behind the door, survived the
blight by learning to grow it, and it will trade fresh seed for potatoes on
its own terms. Each faction remembers what you told the others.

The drowned silo

Mire, a third silo, has been under water since the year the doors were
sealed. Its seed vault was held in common by all the silos, and nobody has
opened it since. Getting there means the flooded drain line and a pump room
where something waits under the black water. Below that, the floors have to
be drained one at a time. Finding out why Mire drowned means reading the
pages Greywell cut from its own archive.

The seed nobody owns

The vault's lock wants two keys out of three: the Pumpwrights' power, the
Council's seal, or a code that Mire's survivors still sing. Whoever helps
you open it will expect something back. When the last clean seed is in your
hands, you decide who it goes to. Four endings and an epilogue that
remembers what you did on the way: the door, the lies, the report you filed,
the lamps you cut.


KEY FEATURES
------------
- A farm that runs on power and water. Route power at the breaker panel,
  keep the grow lights on, and repair and upgrade the machines in every
  room.
- Seed that wears out. Each seed line loses health as it is replanted.
  Cross lines at the bench to breed healthier, rot-resistant ones, then name
  what you bred.
- Three factions with long memories. The Council keeps the ledger and the
  Pumpwrights keep the power. Knell, behind the sealed door, has the seed
  you need. Your standing with each changes prices, routes and the ending.
- Turn-based fights with action points. Rats, beetles, crawlers and six
  bosses, each beaten with a particular tool you find, earn or build.
- A story about an inherited wrong. The founders sealed the doors and
  drowned a neighbouring silo. You find out how, and decide who the last
  clean seed belongs to.
- 56 quests, 12 puzzles, 4 endings. About 13 to 18 hours for a first
  playthrough (estimate), with an epilogue built from your choices.
- No XP. People teach you knacks; bosses harden you. Survival mode saves
  only at a bed.


DETAILS
-------
- 56 quests and 25 areas across three silos.
- Four endings, plus two ways to lose: two missed months, or exile by the
  Council.
- Standard saves, or Survival mode, where you can only save by writing up
  your log at a bed.
- Settings for reduced flashing, text size up to 130%, combat speed and
  fully rebindable keys.
- Single-player. Keyboard and mouse. English text.
